The Origin and Real Name of Nimrod

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THE ORIGIN AND REAL NAME OF NIMROD

By E. G. H. Kraeling
Union Theological Seminary, New York

The figure of the biblical Nimrod has ever attracted the attention
of Assyriologists and numerous have been the attempts to explain
the origin and name of this builder of Babel. A number of years
ago the writer became convinced that the name could not be sepa-
rated from the city of Marad and that it was an epithet of LUGAL-
MARAD-DA, a god worshiped at that place. The city of Marad
was a center of great importance in early times; thus in the days
of the kings of Ur the patesi of Marad follows in rank the patesis of
Lagash, Um-ma, and Babylon. 1 Its zikkurrat or tower is mentioned
II J?, 50, col. 7, 17 (E-GAR-GA-UL-UL). The son of the great
Naram-Sin was ishakku or governor of Marad — a fact implying that
it was a very prominent post — and founded there the temple of the
god LUGAL-MARAD-DA. Several thousand years later Nebu-
chadrezzar piously restored this edifice, and both the foundation and
the restoration inscriptions of this "Nimrod" temple, as I would
like to call it, have recently come to light. 2

LUGAL-MARAD-DA simply means "king (lugal) of Marad."
The title "king," however, can be circumscribed by EN =" lord"
(or NIN which in the older period also can mean "lord" and is
basically the same word). The king of Marad could therefore be
called EN-MARAD or NIN-MARAD, "lord of Marad." Professor
Prince cited my view that EN-MARAD is the biblical Nimrod in
JAOS, XL (1920), 201 f. A recent discovery enables us to furnish
definite proof that this is the case. It had long been known that
a god LUGAL-BAN-DA was prominently worshiped at Marad.
He was the patron deity of Gilgamesh to whom appeal is made by
the hero in the epic- Poebel's dynastic tablet from Nippur taught
us that LUGAL-BAN-DA was really an old, semimythical king,
the third ruler of the first kingdom of Erech. And now the newly

1 Cf. Hommel, Geographic und Geschichte des Alten Orients, I (1907), 307.

2 Clay, Miscellaneous Inscriptions (1915), Nos. 10 and 34.

214

The Origin and Real Name of Nimrod 215

published "God list for school use" proves that BAN, the second
element in this name, must be read phonetically as -marad-, so that
LUGAL-BAN-DA = Lugal-marad-da. 1 To cap the climax, we find
in II R, 57 : 2Zcd the god EN-BAN-DA, who must now be read
En-marad-da, and this supplies us with the exact by-form of Lugal-
marad-da that we had postulated. The alternate form Nin^marad
may have also been current, but it does not happen to occur in the
inscriptions. 2 Philologically this explanation of the name certainly
seems acceptable.

But can we show that historically or mythologically any affinity
exists between Nimrod and the "lord of Marad" ?

In the dynasty tablet from Nippur, already cited, the following
names open the list of the kings of E-an-na (i.e., Erech) : 3

TfiABS

1. Mes-ki-in-ga-se-ir, son of Samas, high priest and king 325

2. En-me-ir-kdr, son of the former 420

3. Lugal-marad-da, the shepherd 1200

4. Dumu-zi* the hunter from the city of KHA-A 100

5. GIS-BIL-GA-MES? son of the goddess Nin-sun and the high

priest of the city of Kullab 126

The mythically long reigns of these rulers at once remind one of the
biblical antediluvians; and above all, Lugal-marad-da is given the
supreme reputation for longevity — which in terms of our language
means that he is the greatest of them all. Now Albright has shown
that En-me-ir-kdr, predecessor of Lugal-marad-da, is identical with
Euechoros* the grandfather of Gilgamos in the legend recorded by
Aelian, and that this legend originally referred to the birth of Lugal-
marad-da. He was born in secret by the daughter of En-me-ir-kdr,

i Schroeder, MVAG, XXI, 180 f.

2 Albright, JAOS, XL, 335, postscript, says, "Kraeling's suggestion En-marad-
quoted by Prince, is nearly correct." He himself prefers Nin-marad (p. 314) — a form
which naturally also occurred to me — and arrived at his conclusion without knowing of
my views. On account of the occurrence of En-marad-da, however, I choose to abide
by my original suggestion. The transition of a to 3 in Nimrod is well explained by
Albright's comparison of Babylonian Dagan with West Semitic Dagon.

"Of. Poebel, Historical Texts (1914), pp. 88 f.; cf. p. 74.

« As Tammuz- Adonis this ancient king of Erech received the worship of the Orientals
for thousands of years. He is called "the hunter," but is more a tragic than a heroic
figure in legend; cf. the material in Jeremias, Altorientalische Geisteshultur (1913), pp.
263 A.

» Otherwise written Gilgamesh, the famous hero of the epic.

« The name has been handed down as Seuechoros, but the initial S is merely dittog-
raphy of the last letter of the preceding word; cf. Albright, op. cit., p. 311.

216 The American Journal of Semitic Languages

doubtless was in some way raised by a shepherd, and later came to
the throne. 1 This accounts for the fact that he is called "the shep-
herd." His pastoral character must not mislead us to picture him
as a flute-playing Anacreonite; the example of David shows that
the wild, free life of the ancient shepherd was the best school for a
warrior. The allusion "Shepherd" merely is to remind of the
legend; just so Sargon might be called the "gardener," in remem-
brance of the legend about his youth.

Lugal-marad-da — "lord of Marad" is of course not a genuine
personal name, but a title, and the fact that this title has caused the
real name of its bearer to pass into oblivion shows that it was famous
and much used. Like the "old man of the mountains," the lord of
Marad was known far and wide. Originally a real-hero of flesh and
blood, he became a god as early as the days of Naram-Sin, the
memory of his greatness being idolized by his people at Marad later
in less glorious times. The r61e that he played as god clearly indi-
cates that he was first of all a warrior, for he is regarded as a mani-
festation of the Babylonian war-god Urta (NIN-IB). 2 The passage
already cited, II R, 57 : 23cd, explains En-marad-da as Urta sabit
purussu ill ("who proclaims the decisions of the gods"), and else-
where we have the group d lugal-marad-da d Mash, thus identifying
Mash ( = Urta) with the lord of Marad. This fits very well the
biblical statement about Nimrod that he began to be a hero (gibbof)
upon earth (Gen. 10:8).

The militant hero of ancient times was usually a hunter; the
chase of the lion or of the wild ox or of the boar was the next best
excitement to war, and we therefore find the Assyrian kings deeply
interested in the chase. Hundreds of representations on Babylonian
seals show a heroic figure grappling with or slaughtering a lion. It
has been customary to regard this figure as Gilgamesh; some scholars
have observed, however, that the so-called Gilgamesh scenes on the
seals do not illustrate the epic at all in the form in which it has been
handed down to us. 3 The lion-killing is certainly very incidental
and even problematic in the epic (col. ii, 1). I would like to suggest

1 The legend that has been immortalized by Sophocles in his Oedipus tragedy shows
similar motifs and may have been influenced by oriental stories.

2 So expressly in Schroeder's god list, op. cit., text, 11. 2, 15, 17.

3 Of. O. Weber, Altorientalische Siegelbilder (1920), I, 14 fl.

The Origin and Real Name of Nimbod 217

that these scenes really refer to our king of Marad. Since Gilgamesh
worships him as patron deity, he must have been a greater hero than
Gilgamesh. Only through such seal representations can the fame
of Nimrod as a great hunter have become current among the Hebrews.

From this point of view we may be able to determine the original
meaning of the proverb which already at an early date caused the
interpolation 6f verse 9 into the text of Genesis, chapter 10. An
inveterate and successful hunter in Israel is said to be "like Nimrod,
a mighty hunter before the face of Yahweh." Remembering the fact
that the Assyrian Heracles was often portrayed as a giant, 1 we may
conclude that this expression originally is meant very literally as
"measuring Up to divine size," therefore superhuman, extraordinary.
(It must be recalled that the monuments always portray the gods
as much bigger than their human adorants.) Wherever the words
"before the face of Yahweh" occur in a like connection the meaning
"extraordinary" fits excellently (Jonah 3:3, an extraordinarily large
city; Gen. 6:11, extraordinarily wicked). The Old Testament
remembers that Nimrod was not one of the primeval gods, but
rather a mortal who reached the divine estate; this presupposes
that the legends about the king of Marad were well known.

It has seemed peculiar to many that J makes Nimrod a Cushite.
But let us not forget that J's home was in Judea and that the southern
Judeans had much contact with South Arabia. The caravan road
from South Arabia to the Mediterranean Sea led to Gaza, and the
treasures of the East were shipped from thence to other lands. It is
not accidental that J knows about the gold of the land of Havila as
well as its bdellium and onyx stones. The name Cush in the Old
Testament often includes Arabia as well as Ethiopia and the region
of Chaldea can without difficulty be described as belonging to Cush.
The cultural rather than the physiographical standpoint was the
leading one for J; and it is quite clear that Chaldea, not only in
late days, but also in the earliest times, was in close touch with
central and southern Arabia. New groups of Arabian tribes were
constantly filtering into that region — the region of the city of Marad
— and maintaining intercourse with their relatives farther west.

1 Cf. the illustration in Jeremias, Das Alte Testament im Lichte des Alien Orients
(1916), p. 159.

218 The American Journal of Semitic Languages

What is more natural than that the news of the mighty king of
Marad, the patron for every bandit and herdsman, should have
passed into Arabia and through Arabia to southern Palestine?
Proudly the Arab would boast of him as " one of our own — a Cushite."
And so the Hebrew huntsman on the Edomite frontier, the man of
the Esau type who was only found in the south, since in the north
lived the more effeminate husbandman of Jacob's kind, heard and
passed on the story of that hunter of hunters of long ago. 1 If the
news had come by way of northern Syria, Nimrod would never have
been made a "Cushite." As it is, the connection with Arabia is
plain. 2

It seems surprising at the first glance that the Old Testament
claims to have knowledge of Nimrod's kingdom, for two millennia
lie between the days of the king of Marad and the biblical narrator.
Under those circumstances it would be idle to expect historical
accuracy and to require of us to show that En-marad-da had done
all the things attributed to Nimrod. We must rather expect to
find that the mythical Nimrod has attracted to himself much that
is not of his own accomplishment.

We can safely assert that "Nimrod the city-builder" has stolen
Hammurabi's laurels. If we are told that the beginning of his
kingdom was Babel, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh 3 in the land of
Shinar, we plainly have the rise of Babylon under Hammurabi pre-
supposed, for only through this king's activity did the city of Marduk
come into the foreground. Very naturally he must have subjected
Erech, Akkad, and Nippur in the course of his empire-building, but
the fact that neither Larsa nor Nisin are mentioned shows that
there is no conscious attempt to describe Hammurabi's history. J
merely mentions a few of the famous Babylonian cities that happen
to occur to him.

i The stories of the lion-killing of Samson (Judges 14:6) and David (I Sam. 17:35)
may have been influenced or inspired by the representations on the Babylonian seals
that were passed about in Palestine.

2 The suggestion that Cush is really the Babylonian city of Kish (Van Gelderen,
The Expositor [1914], pp. 276 1 . ; recently also Burkitt, Jour. Theol. Stud. , 1920) is neither
necessary nor convincing.

s No explanation of Calneh has yet been offered that is preferable to Hilprecht's
and Hommel's Nippur (Ki-illina, spoken for Ki-enlil, "the city of the god Enlil"); cf.
Landersdorfer, Sumerisches im Alten Testament (1916), p. 28. The emendation to
Kullaba (Jensen) is unlikely because this was merely a suburb of Erech.

The Origin and Real Name of Nimrod 219

When we are told that Nimrod went forth from Shinar to Ashur
(Gen. 10: 11), we dare not expect to have before us any direct knowl-
edge of an ancient conquest of Assyria by Hammurabi or Lugal-
marad-da. The figure of Nimrod has here assumed an idealistic
nature; it symbolizes the imperialism of the eastern Semites. The
going forth from Babel to Ashur signifies merely that the star of
empire passed westward. Therefore Ashur can be called "the land
of Nimrod" (Mic. 5:4 f.) in later times, while a thousand years
earlier this epithet only fitted Babel.

Some of the geographical detail of Gen. 10:11 f. is very puzzling.
Shall we assume that a traveler who had visited Nineveh brought
back and handed down an exact account of small towns in its imme-
diate vicinity ? Only such a supposition would permit us to adopt
the view that Rehoboth Ir is a r&bit-Nina 1 and Resen a rish-Sni. 2
But if the westward trend of the star of empire is described in Nim-
rod's going out to Ashur, we would rather expect the names of great
and famous cities, similar to those mentioned in Babylonia. It is
unlikely that the writer should have known, or that the reader should
have cared about, such minor sites as the above-mentioned identifi-
cations.

The name Rehoboth 3 might be an appellation given to any great
city that had a number of "public squares" and was an important
center of commercial activity. The use of a secondary name or of
an appellative often becomes predominant; thus Jerusalem became
known as Kadosh — "the holy one" (today still El-]£uds). Rehoboth
possibly applied to Arbela, which ranks with Nineveh and Calah as
one of the greatest of Assyrian cities; but Rasappa (the biblical
Rezeph) should also receive mention because its name, meaning
"paved street," suggests affinity with "public squares," 4 and because
it was an important outpost on the Aramean frontier. If Resen
refers to a large city, then the localization "between Nineveh and
Calah" must be a gloss, like the other statement following it, "that

1 Cf. Delitzsch, Paradies, p. 216.

2 Johns, Enc. Bib., col. 4038; cf. Nestle ZDMO, 1904, pp. 158 f.

3 Konig, Die Genesis (1919), p. 402, rightly says that Ir is not a part of the name,
but merely emphasizes the use of the common word Rehoboth as a proper name.

1 Cf. my Aram and Israel (1918), p. 63, and Herzfeld and Sarre, Am Euphrat und
Tigris, I (1911), p. 136. It is not quite clear, however, whether Rasappa was an Assyrian
possession as early as the time of the Jahwist.

220 The American Journal of Semitic Languages

is the great city." Perhaps the time-honored caravanserai Resaina
(Rds-el- c ain) is the original Resen. But these suggestions must be
taken as very hypothetical, since it is impossible to demonstrate
them. The point to be emphasized is that it is the mention of really
important cities that should be expected.

A city king of ancient Marad, whose true name remains forgotten,
then a god of war and of the chase, and finally the symbol of the
imperialism of the eastern Semites, such has been the career of
En-mar ad = Nimrod. At Wannet-es-Sa c dun, a mound on the Eu-
phrates, west of Nippur, marking the site of Marad, his career was
begun. There Naram-Sin's son built E-igi-kalama, "the house of
the eye of the lands," as the place where Nimrod was to be worshiped,
because the divine hero had been his father's helper in battle. Thus
reads the inscription on the door socket of the original Nimrod
temple (Clay, Misc. Inscr., No. 10) :

Naram-Sin, the mighty king of the four quarters, the conqueror of nine
armies in one year, when those armies he overcame and their three kings he
bound and before Enlil brought, in that day Libel-ili, his son, the ruler of
Marad, the temple of Lugal-marad-da in Marad built. Whosoever alters
this inscription may Shamash and Lugal-marad-da tear out his foundation
and exterminate his seed.